Get it Right!!

Much is being made of people 'leaving the Church'.

Some research said people with intelligence do not have religious faith. This was said by unbelievers who wanted to stain the characters of intelligent people of faith - 'obviously', if they really were intelligent they would not call themselves Christians! Hm.

Then, a short while ago, we were told that youth are leaving the Church in droves.

Of course, all of this is driven by atheists who love to crow about the Church 'losing its grip'.

More recently, other research says that Christian beliefs are losing out in people of low income and intelligence. Hm again! The prejudice against Christianity is so obvious it is painful.

(And, for those who wish to write in against this statement, you may as well forget it - we won't publish your childish retorts).

Let people get it through their heads - THE CHURCH IS ALWAYS EXACTLY RIGHT.

The Church NEVER loses its members. It is ALWAYS at its right strength, and it ALWAYS has exactly the right number of believers. ALWAYS! So, the doom and gloom soothsayers, atheists to a man, are barking up the wrong tree. People may be leaving their local churches, but they are not, and cannot, leave THE Church of which Christ is the Head.

But. but. (splutter, splutter). what about the actual figures? Okay - what are they telling us?

Define a true Christian

They tell us that those who did not truly believe anyway are leaving local churches that never bothered to define what a believer is according to scripture.

The figures show youth leaving one social environment for another environment they find more exiting, such as clubs, or even cultic religions. They show poorer people no longer finding fake Christianity of any use to them, so they leave. I, for one, don't blame them. Those who are saved will eventually relocate to a genuine church. But, many, who were not genuinely saved, and used their local church as a buffer between them and their situations, no longer find that it helps.

So, they leave for whatever next takes their fancy. Various Pentecostal and Elim churches are like this... Happy-clappyness only goes so far, and then people lose interest.

So what? People have been leaving churches for two millennia!

And what of people who are intelligent, who see the errors of religion and so never get involved?

Another 'Hm'! I have higher education and qualifications and work experience to suit. Yet, I am a Bible Believer. That is because I see the rock-solid facts of faith, not the airy-fairy myths put out by so many churches today. And I know many scientists and others who believe in God.

So, forget those supposed 'research' findings. They are as dud as the conclusions!

The facts are these:

God chooses who will be saved. That is, he elects and predestinates them.

No-one is saved unless they have first been elected to salvation. So the actual number depends on God.

And no-one who has been elected can ever lose their salvation.

It also means that only those who are elect will be saved.

The number who are saved in any age is determined NOT by what churches say or do, but by election.

Because election took place before the world was made, the number of the elect is fixed in eternity.

Thus, the number who are believers in any age cannot, by definition, ever fall or rise. It is fixed.

And so the number leaving or being added does not say anything about the churches in any age, but only speaks of how many are elected in eternity. The number will, then, change in each age, though it will be fixed in eternal language. Any who 'leave' only leave the building, like Elvis. They cannot and do not leave Christ, because that would be impossible.

So - do not be bothered by the figures! We will see even more 'leaving the churches' as time marches on, because scripture warns of a mass apostasy towards the end times. We see this today. The ones who are leaving are either those who are genuine no longer tolerating bad pastors, OR they are simply unsaved.

Got the picture? The figures are meaningless, so atheists need not gloat and believers need not fear.